The Washington Nationals announced their first wave of spring training roster cuts on Friday. No significant names are part of the transactions.
The Washington Nationals announced seven roster moves on Friday as part of the first round of spring training roster cuts.
Two players were optioned; Catcher Raudy Read was optioned to Triple-A Fresno, and right-handed pitcher James Bourque was optioned to Double-A Harrisburg.
Last year, Read was suspended by Major League Baseball for 80 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
Read, signed by the Nationals in 2011 as an amateur free agent, only appeared on the big league team in 2017 and recorded 11 plate appearances.
In Triple-A Syracuse last season, Read recorded 52 plate appearances and had a .569 OPS.
The Fresno Grizzlies are the Nationals’ new Triple-A affiliate after the two sides signed a two-year agreement. The Nationals leave behind the Syracuse Chiefs, now the Syracuse Mets, after ten years of a partnership ended last fall.
The Nationals drafted Bourque in the 14th round of the 2014 draft. Bourque has not advanced past Double-A in his minor league career.
In addition to those moves, the following players were reassigned to minor league camp: Right-handed pitchers Ronald Peña and Wil Crowe, catcher Tres Barrera, and outfielders Chuck Taylor and Jose Marmolejos.
Taylor impressed some this spring with six hits and one home run in 18 at-bats.
In 2017, the Nationals drafted Crowe in the second round of the draft. At class High-A Potomac last season, Crowe started 15 games and recorded a 2.69 ERA with 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
Last year, DistrictOnDeck recorded an interview with Crowe, which can be listened to here.
Overall, this is a fairly minor news event for the Nationals who have had a relatively quiet spring thus far.
The most significant news is that Howie Kendrick injured his hamstring and will miss time. However, outside of that, no other major news events have occurred.
Sometimes, no news is good news. That is indeed the case for the Nationals so far this spring.